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On Wednesday afternoon, everything was ready for check-in of 128 young players from 14 countries and almost 100 adults. Each player received a colored badge with the flag, nice backpack with the printed brochure, a green winter cap, a souvenir and a pen. Each adult received a colored badge with the role they “play”.
The opening ceremony in the Congress Hall started at 18:00 sharp. After greetings of honored guests from the local community, participants enjoyed watching dance and singing of a local children folklore group.
The presentation continued with reading the Olympic Oath, just like 6 years ago in 25th EYGC in Croatia. A representative of a referee team explained basic rules of engagement to players and adults. The ceremony ended with the piano performance of a young pianist champion.
After dinner, we had a team leaders’ meeting in the room „Flora”. It was a good time to explain the rules of the competition once more and to confirm names and age groups of all participants.
In the morning, the theater setup of the Congress Hall was transformed into the playing hall with perfect tables and chairs. The original handcrafted wooden table numbers were set to each table and participants advised coming 15 minutes earlier to the playing hall had no problems to be correctly seated at 10:00. The room “Sedra” hosted 7 AI boards enabling the broadcast of 3 top games in U21 and U16 age groups and 1 game in the U12 age group. The round started timely after the chief referee George Ghetu hit the gong. The first two rounds did not bring many surprises. All final positions have been photographed by numerous assistant referees. There were no disputes and the five-member Appeals Committee did not receive any complaints. After finishing their games, players could go to the review room “Flora”, where three teachers (Lukas Podpera, 7d, Ioan Elian Grigoriu, 6d, and Mirta Medak, 3d) diligently helped them to improve their skills.
In the afternoon, 20 pairs started the qualification rounds for semifinals. The PairGo tournament became traditional since 25th EYGC in Croatia – it was held even as an online tournament in 2021. This year, organizers prepared nice trophies for first three pairs and 40 mugs with a bear and a lynx playing go as a pair.
On Thursday evening, all participants got the message that the third round will be postponed to 10:30 due to the continuous snowfall – we wanted to allow more time to a few participants who chose the accommodation outside the venue. The games continued in a more dramatic fashion since top-rated players in all age groups clashed across the board.
Developments of all tournaments including PairGo were nicely described by Milena Bocle, who made a huge contribution to the visibility of EYGC in European go community. All games broadcast on the Online-Go-Server are visible on gogameslive.eu. A lot of nice photographs taken by Raluca Ghetu are available until 25th April 2026 at the following address: https://ralucaghetuphotography.pixieset.com/31steuropeanyouthgochampionships2026/
The organizers are thankful to European professionals Benjamin Drean Guenaizia, 1p, and Tanguy le Calve, 1p, for excellent Twitch commentary.
The closing ceremony started 30 minutes after the end of the last game with the video prepared by volunteers who worked on it for the whole morning. The final version of the video can be found on the YouTube channel of the Croatian Go Association: EYGC 2026 - Official Video
The news show with interviews of young players has been published at the same channel as well: EYGC 2026 - news and interviews
Three best players in each age group received nice trophies from the organizers and EGF Vouchers sponsored by the European Go Federation. Best girls in each age group got medals. The youngest participant and all players with 5 and 6 wins got presents sponsored by Go Factory. Three best pairs of the PairGo tournament got special glass trophies. All pairs got PairGo mugs.
At the very end of the EYGC, the tournament director concluded the event by stressing the fundamental Olympic principles: excellence (giving one’s best), friendship (mutual understanding) and respect (for rules, opponents, and environment). All participants had nice words about every aspect of the organization. It would not be possible without the engagement of a growing group of volunteers, gaining experience during many international go events in Croatia and abroad starting with EYGC 2020.
A final word about the participation from EGF-members: the map of Europe with numbers of participants attracted a lot of attention. It is clearly visible that countries treating go as a sport have proper national youth championships, regularly bringing groups of young players to European Youth Go Championships.
Examples of such countries include Romania, Croatia, Ukraine and Czechia, to some extent followed by Slovakia (with increasing number of young players) and Austria (with a few young players trying hard to build a team). The potential is rising in Turkey (despite the difficulties with travelling) and in Georgia – an absolute novelty in 31 years history of EYGC.
